x, 673 pages ; 24 cm

In this engrossing new study of Sigmund Freud's life and work, Richard Webster has set out to provide a clear answer to the controversies that have raged for a century around one of the most influential of all modern thinkers. Tracing Freud's essentially religious personality to his childhood, Webster shows how the founder of psychoanalysis allowed his messianic dreams to shape the "science" he created and to lead him ever deeper into a labyrinth of medical error.--Publisher

Includes bibliographical references (pages 553-646) and index

A note to the reader -- Introduction : the legacy of Freud -- Prologue : images, myths and legends -- Part 1. The creation of a pseudo-science. From Caul to cocaine -- Hypnotism and hysteria -- Charcot's mistake -- Anna O. and the birth of psychoanalysis -- Freud's first case -- More medical mistakes -- Mysterious mechanisms -- Sex, masturbation and neurasthenia -- The seduction theory -- Freud, Fliess and the theory of infantile sexuality -- Exploring the unconscious : self-analysis and Oedipus -- Dreams and symptoms -- Developing the doctrine -- Part 2. The church and the psychoanalytic gospel. Freud, who was my Christ! -- Freud, Satan and the serpent -- Priests, penitents and patients -- Critics and dissidents -- Jung : crown prince and beloved son -- The secret committee : from formation to failure -- Anna Freud : daughter and disciple -- Part 3. Psychoanalysis, science and the future. Psychoanalysis, science and human nature -- The ghost in the psychoanalytic machine -- The behaviour of the body -- Beyond psychoanalysis -- Afterword : Freud's false memories : psychoanalysis and the recovered memory movement -- Appendix 1 :The diagnosis of 'hysteria' -- Appendix 2 : Babinski's test for 'hysteria'

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